The saddest, longest trek of their young lives

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The scene of the fire which claimed three lives near Coonamble.Photo: Paul Mathews

It was long before yesterday's chilly dawn when Tony and Belinda
Conn saved three of their children from the fire raging through
their weatherboard and fibro cottage on remote Wilga Downs in the
Coonamble district.

They then went back inside to rescue their four-year-old,
Will.

When they did not come out, the Conns' eldest, Fran, knew she
had to get help. She picked up her youngest brother, Will's twin,
and, with her other brother and a cattle dog, marched barefoot
through several kilometres of drought-stricken grazing lands to a
neighbour's farm, a family member, Ron Haycock, told the
Herald yesterday.

Another neighbour, Graham Kelly, said: "It would have been
absolutely pitch dark."

Mr Kelly, who lives closer to the Conns, at the foot of the
Warrumbungles, said the children probably headed to the farm and
not him because they caught the same bus to school as the children
who lived there.

He said a a double garage and tree thicket between his farmhouse
and the Conns' home stopped him from seeing or hearing the fire.
The first he knew of it was when he heard firefighters respond to
the children's alarm at 5.30am.

Like many in this community of isolated farmhouses, Mr Kelly
felt sad, especially for the orphaned children. "They would be
severely traumatised, naturally," he said. The Conns were
"run-of-the-mill country people. Good people. Very good
people."

The cottage, fringed by trees and not far from the homestead
where Mr Conn's late parents once lived, was destroyed by the
fire.

While the three surviving children, aged 13, 10 and 4, were
cared for by their relatives yesterday, firefighters and police
tried to make sense of what had happened.

Until last night, when the bodies of Will and his parents were
found, NSW Police were simply stating that "two adults and a child
living in the home are yet to be accounted for". Even then, the
names of the victims could not be released until police had run
dental and DNA checks, a spokeswoman for the police said. Last
night, police were still unable to say what caused the fire.

Mark Crosweller, the assistant commissioner of the Rural Fire
Service, praised the children's bravery. "The access was quite
challenging for fire crews having to travel quite some distance
over a dirt road before gaining entry to the property, and then of
course up a long driveway to the structure itself," he told Sky
News. "The children did an exceptional job to raise
the alarm, and they should be commended for doing so."

He said the distance they travelled was closer to three
kilometres although Mr Kelly said it was about five.

One of the Conns' neighbours, who identified himself only as Mr
Lyons, said the neighbours who raised the alarm were in shock after
the children turned up on their doorstep at dawn. "As you can
imagine, they're pretty shaken up about it," he said.

"The three kids just came in bare feet all the way."

Mr Haycock said the whole area was in shock. "Everyone in the
district is related one way or the other and all the neighbours
around here are pretty close."

Another farmer who did not wish to be named said that the
drought was a bad enough tragedy, but this was worse.